US3 min(s) read
Published 09:38 06 Aug 2026 GMT
A 36-year-old Florida man attacked his sister with a machete while she was asleep in bed next to her one-year-old daughter, according to police in Margate.
Ruben Altidore allegedly hacked at his sister repeatedly in her bedroom on Monday night. At one point during the attack, he reportedly shouted: "Oh my God, why aren't you dead yet?"
The baby was in the bed the entire time.
She was cut badly across most of her body.
A 10-inch wound on the back of her right thigh went down to the bone.
Four fingers on her right hand were nearly severed. Her left index finger and thumb were close to amputation.
A separate cut across her left palm almost took the left thumb as well.
How she got out of the room with those injuries is unclear, but she did eventually make it out.
She made it through the hallway, out of the house, and into the street in Margate, a suburb about 40 miles north of Miami.
Home surveillance cameras in the neighbourhood picked up the sound of her screaming. She ran to a neighbour's front door, covered in blood, asking for help.
"My brother is trying to kill me," she told investigators when they arrived at the scene.
A cousin of the victim was also present and separately confirmed to police that Altidore had attacked his sister with a machete.
The victim was taken to hospital with injuries described as serious but not life-threatening.
Luis Pereria lives nearby. He told WPLG that the woman came to his door covered in blood.
"She ran to the middle of the street and then ran to my front door where she was asking for help," he said.
"Apparently she was sleeping when this all happened. I was just baffled by it. How can you do that?"
Her screams were picked up on home surveillance cameras in the area.
A cousin of the victim separately confirmed to police that Altidore attacked her with a machete.
The one-year-old was found still lying in the bed after the attack.
She was covered in her mother's blood but had not been cut or physically harmed.
In short, blood everywhere.
In the bedroom, tracked through the hallway, on a bathroom door, out the front of the house.
A machete sheath in the kitchen. The machete itself under a bed with red smudges on the blade.
Attempted felony murder, aggravated child abuse, and violation of probation.
The probation violation suggests Altidore was already under court supervision at the time of the attack, though the nature of his prior offence has not been disclosed.
He is being held without bond at Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale.
No motive has been released. Investigators have not said whether there was an argument or confrontation before the attack, or whether Altidore had any history of violence towards his sister.
